Video Games' Effect on the Brain
Researchers had about 100 people play shooter games like Call of Duty, Killzone,and Borderlands 2, along with 3D Super Mario games for 90 hours. They found that participants who favor their brain’s caudate nucleus — an area associated with the brain’s reward system and habit formation — had less grey brain(Grey matter contains most of the brain's neuronal cell bodies. The grey matter includes regions of the brain involved in muscle control, and sensory perception such as seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-control) matter in their hippocampus after playing action games.The hippocampus is a major part of the brain that helps maintain spatial(spatial memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one's environment) and episodic memories, according to the study. Episodic memories are the memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual who, what, when, where, why knowledge) that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place.And reduced grey matter in this part of the brain has previously been linked to higher risks of brain illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia, PTSD, and Alzheimer’s disease. Which means that by playing action packed violent video games you are making yourself more likely to have a large variety of mental illnesses and just illnesses in general.
Researchers found that 85% of gamers rely on their caudate nucleus (also known as “response learners”) more than their hippocampus (spatial learners) while navigating action video games. The caudate nucleus plays a vital role in how the brain learns, specifically the storing and processing of memories. This adversely affects the hippocampus because as the amount of grey matter increases in the caudate nucleus, it decreases in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a small organ located within the brain's medial temporal lobe and forms an important part of the limbic system, the region that regulates emotions. The hippocampus is associated mainly with memory, in particular long-term memory. The organ also plays an important role in spatial navigation.Meanwhile, playing the 3D Super Mario games for 90 hours resulted in increased grey matter in the hippocampus for all the participants, according to the study.To counter potential long-lasting damage, the study authors suggest that response learners would benefit from strategies that target spatial learning. For example, video game designers could alter modern action games by removing in-system navigational tools. This would allow the gamer to get around using landmarks included in the world of the game, which can strengthen spatial.
As much as video games may hurt your brain in some parts they do help improve other parts of the brain which is cool, but I don't suggest playing 90 hours of video games to figure that out. I think that regardless of the consequences people will continue to play videos games good or bad. Video games are like a drug to some people once they're hooked onto one game they won't be able to leave it unless they find a better more addictive game. Videos games are like a drug in that that incapacitate people from doing everyday things because of how much they feel withdraw when they aren't playing video games or at least talking about them.
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